A wealthy Wall Street “recluse” claimed he was duped by a Harvard fellow and another activist into allegedly funding weapons to mount a coup in South Sudan, according to his lawyer.
Robert Granieri, the co-founder of trading firm Jane Street, was allegedly deceived and “defrauded” after handing over millions to fund the purported attempt to topple the South Sudanese government, his lawyer told Bloomberg.
In early 2024, federal prosecutors in Arizona charged Harvard fellow Peter Ajak, a prominent economist, and Abraham Keech with conspiring to illegally export arms to South Sudan to overthrow the government of their home country. They have both pleaded not guilty.
Granieri, who has not been accused of wrongdoing by the U.S. government, allegedly transferred $7 million in two installments after meeting with Ajak in New York City in February 2024, Bloomberg reported.
The financier, whose company was the employer of crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried, claimed that he was misled by Ajak, a prominent political activist and former World Bank economist, his lawyer said.
“Granieri is a longtime supporter of human rights causes,” his lawyer’s statement to the outlet said. “In this case, the person Rob thought was a human rights activist defrauded Rob and lied about his intentions.”
Prosecutors have not disclosed where the accused obtained the money to purchase the weapons, but Ajak’s lawyers named Granieri in the recent court filing seen by Bloomberg and said he was “vital to the plan.”
“Without the significant financing that Mr. Granieri could and agreed to provide, the alleged conspiracy would have been impossible,” Ajak’s lawyers reportedly said in the court filing dated May 29.
According to the criminal complaint last year, Ajak and Keech allegedly plotted to purchase AK-47s, sniper rifles, grenades and Stinger missiles for the purported takeover.
The Justice Department alleged in the complaint that the defendants violated U.S. law making it illegal to export weapons to South Sudan, which is subject to a U.N. arms embargo.
Before their arrest last year, they allegedly met with an undercover agent to inspect the weapons at a warehouse in Phoenix.
Ajak and Keech’s defense attorneys have signaled that they plan to pursue a “public authority” defense, according to Bloomberg. Defense attorneys allege the U.S. authorities were aware of the plan.
The defense also accused prosecutors of targeting the two Black men and not pursuing Granieri and another man referenced in the case, Garry Kasparov. He is a Russian dissident who has not been accused of wrongdoing by the U.S. government.
Prosecutors said the State Department told Ajak in October in 2023 that it would not fund plans for non-democratic regime change, according to the criminal complaint.
Ajak was a child soldier in Sudan in the 90s and fled to the U.S. He studied at the Harvard Kennedy School and eventually returned to Sudan to become a World Bank economist. He became a prominent political activist following South Sudan’s independence in 2011 after 20 years of civil war.
Ajak became a political prisoner in July 2018 after being arrested at South Sudan’s Juba International Airport. He was detained in the National Security Service’s infamous “blue house.”
In 2020, he was granted asylum in the U.S. once again. At the time, Ajak thanked the first Trump administration on social media for giving his family refuge.
